


betray your kin

by cravingformore



Category: Assassin's Creed - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Jacob's future wife is Starrick's daughter, Self-Insert, Slow Burn, Slow To Update, Un-Beta'ed, Why Did I Write This?, at least somewhat, opium wars mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-22
Updated: 2020-06-22
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:26:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24863020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cravingformore/pseuds/cravingformore
Summary: Drunk, mischievous Jacob Frye decides to stalk the Starrick residence for fun - and who knows, maybe he'll find something interesting as well?He certainly does, in the form of Anne Starrick.
Relationships: Jacob Frye/Jacob Frye's Wife, Jacob Frye/Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 17





	betray your kin

**Author's Note:**

> this has been a draft for ages. i decided to finally publish it. i think i'll keep it a one-shot until i have enough chapters ready - though that will take a while.

The window next to him was open, and he heard some piano and singing come through. Carefully as to not make any sounds he peeked inside, and he saw a grand piano, and by it sat a young woman in a blue, expensive looking dress. No one else was in the room. He realized the song was a lullaby.

The musician new the song by heart, it seemed, because Jacob did not see notes on the piano. But then a bell rung, and she stopped. Jacob hid against the wall.

The door opened. “I told you to stop playing when you’re supposed to sow!”

“And I told you I don’t know how to, and no one wants to help me!” said the woman, her speaking voice very different from her singing. “I like to play the piano, and I’m fairly good at it.”

Whoever was talking to her closed the piano. “Go find someone to teach you how to sow clothes. It’s all you should do, really, with your father ripping his regularly.”

“Starrick should sow his own clothes if he likes to rip them so much.” Jacob almost dropped. This young lady was Starrick’s daughter? And better yet, she called him Starrick… which means she dislikes him?

A slap. “That is no way of speaking to your father! He is an important man, and you should respect him as such.”

No answer from the girl. The door closed after whoever came in, and for a second Jacob thought the woman had gone as well, but then he heard the piano open, the pedals loosened, and the piano started playing twice as loud as it had. She started singing a song that belonged in pubs, not Crawford Starrick’s mansion. He knew it well enough to know the name and the fact that it tells of a man ready to hide in his own little world because he was too afraid of the real world.

She was mocking Starrick.

He slid inside and sung the next line: “Does it free you from the pain?”

The music stopped abruptly, and the woman turned to face him, then her eyes lowered to his arm. His hidden blade. “You’re an Assassin,” she stated, then got up to stand and face him. She had an odd accent. “Are you here to kill me? It doesn’t matter much. I am not a Templar, as much as my father would like me to be, and he doesn’t much care if I died. You have the wrong target.”

“I’m not here to kill you,” Jacob said.

She smiled then. She looked amused. “Are you here to sing with me then?”

Jacob smiled as well. “I am here to make a proposal for you.”

“Lord, I hope it isn’t the traditional kind.”

“No, miss, I am here to propose a plan to get your father killed.”

She threw her head back and laughed loudly. Jacob wondered a bit if anyone could hear her laugh by herself. Would someone walk in? “I don’t wish death for anyone,” she said and turned back to sit.

Jacob felt odd, and maybe it was the alcohol still in his system that he thought she would accept his proposal immediately, but now he’d have to convince her.

She started to play again, this time a song Jacob didn’t know. It was the lullaby again. “I notice you don’t need sheets for this song,” he says conversationally.

She hummed. “I never had any.”

“Oh?” questioned Jacob.

“My mother sang it to me when she was alive,” she explained. “We lived abroad. My mother’s home country, you see. We were not very rich, but we were happy.” She continued playing the tune. “I try to keep her alive with the songs she would sing to me.”

“So how did Crawford end up with you here?” Jacob asked, sincerely interested.

“He didn’t even know I existed until my mother died a few months ago.” A chorus. “She sent him a letter when I was born, but there was no reply. When I asked him of it, he told me he never received a letter.” She pressed a note out of place in anger. “When she died, she gave me another letter, and told me to find my father. She knew he was rich and could afford to care for me until I turn twenty-one.

“So, I travelled to England by myself and found myself on Starrick’s doorstep. A butler opened and wouldn’t let me in until I gave him the letter. Starrick is honour-bound to care for me now, but the only thing I know how to do is play the piano and read, which he is disappointed in.”

“A model father, then,” Jacob smiled and stood next to her by the piano. She laughed.

“Yes!” Then she smiled sadly. “I only had one tutor when I was young, an American piano tutor. I know how to read notes and I know how to play without them, but I don’t know how to do anything an English lady ought to. So, I play all day long. I’m getting quite good at it.”

Jacob started thinking. “You’re the heir, aren’t you?”

She stopped playing. “I suppose I am. What of it?”

“Can you not get him to teach you how to care for your future empire?”

“I try, he just says, ‘Not yet, my dear,’ and that’s all I hear of it. It’s probably his dreams of immortality that makes him so repulsed by the idea.”

“Ah, yes, you know about those?”

“Hard not to. Whenever we’re alone, it’s all he talks about. He comes in once a day to talk with the illegitimate child and maybe hear her play the piano.”

Jacob’s mind was turning. Maybe… “How about you don’t help me kill him? Just help me find out whatever he finds, or thinks is important.”

She thought of this, but right when she was about to answer, Jacob heard someone approach. He quickly slid back to the wall outside the window right before there was a knock on the door.

“Come in,” said the woman.

Someone stepped inside. “Hello, daughter. How has your day gone by?”

“Father. I have been playing the fortepiano the whole day. I would much rather learn, but no one has time to teach me anything.”

Starrick chuckled. “I have just come to tell you I have finally been able to arrange a tutor for you. He will teach you everything you need in order to be my successor when the time comes. I had so many candidates and, of course, I had to test every one of them in all areas you need so I could find you the very best one.”

“Really?” her voice was excited.

“Would you like to meet him?”

“I’d like to start already!”

“You will start tomorrow,” Starrick said. “Today you two can meet and see if you get along. Miles!”

A new set of feet walked in. “How do you do?” said a young man’s voice, and there was the unmistakable sound of a hand being kissed.

“Charmed.” She didn’t sound very.

“Salome, this is Miles, your new tutor. He had perfect scores in every test I gave him, so you know he is very much able to teach you.”

“Excellent. I look forward to learning with you.”

“I look forward to teach you, miss.”

Two pairs of feet walked away, and the door closed. She sat back down. “They’re gone.”

Jacob slid back inside.

“You know, I was about to decline your offer,” she said, not picking up the song again, “when he brings in a man my age who made me shiver with disgust and hatred. A man my age, who scored perfectly in ‘every test he gave him’!” Her voice rose to make fun of Starrick’s. “Wouldn’t be surprised if by the end of the month he makes the traditional proposal, and to be honest, I would much rather accept yours.”

“Lord, I hope you mean the traditional kind,” Jacob jokes, then laughs when she turns to glare at him.

“So, how do we do this?” she asked, turning to face him with the rest of her body as well.

“You take full advantage of that new tutor of yours and find out everything you can about your father. Sneak into his office, if you can, whenever you can. You’re allowed to be there, right?”

She scoffed. “It’s a massive room with a grand piano and notes for it on shelves. I have full access to it if he is not there. I’m a woman who hasn’t ever lived in England; they don’t think I actually have any brains.”

“How wrong they are,” said Jacob with a smile. “How many songs have you memorized?”

She smiled coyly. “Any I’ve heard. I can remember what I hear excellently.”

“Sounds like you’ll be doing some eavesdropping.”

“For sure.”

They smiled at each other, until Jacob spoke again. “When shall we meet to discuss whatever you find?”

She thought for a moment. “I’m allowed outside with a chaperone of my own choosing once a week. How about a week from now I use my privilege of an outing with a chaperone I know to be easily distracted?” she proposed.

“Where will this outing take place?” Jacob asked.

“I’ve been feeling like going to church. I need to do some praying.”

They shook on it. “And what is the name of my newest business partner?”

“Anne Starrick.”

“Lovely name, although very Templar.”

Anne laughed. “If it’s too Templar for you, I went by Ström for most of my life – it was my mother’s last name.”

“I think my sister may not kill me if I tell her your original last name,” joked Jacob.

“Then by all means. You must go now – I think I hear my guardian approach!” she hastily added.

With a salute, Jacob was gone – and wouldn’t see her in a week.

“You did what?”

Jacob was wrong – Evie would kill him anyway.

“Relax, sister dearest. This time I’m sure it’ll work.”

Evie laughed without humour. “You must be drunk out of your mind, because only an idiot would _enter the enemy’s own home_ and _accept the help of someone inside_!”

“Oh, I feel like you’ve done at least one of those as well…”

“Jacob – “

“I’ll say it again; relax. I have this planned out.”

His sister scoffed. “That would be a first.” But she said nothing else to stop him. Making a mental note to shadow her brother when he meets the girl, she let him go. Anne Ström – she wondered if Mr. Green knew anything about her.

The week went by fast, because Jacob was having fun brawling with the Blighters and winning gang wars. His Rooks were ever-growing. Before he knew it, it was time for church.

Dressed in his Sunday best (his top hat), he made his way inside the church nearest to Starrick’s place – guessing correctly that it would be the only one Anne was allowed to go to. He saw her figure hunched over by a picture of the Virgin Mother. With a quick look around with his Eagle vision, checking for nearby enemies, he sat down in front of her.

“Took you long enough.”

Jacob leaned back in the chair, lounging comfortably so she can hear him and appear like he wasn’t talking to her. “Apologies, Miss Anne. We did not specify a time.”

“That needs to change next time. My posture is killing me. I’ve been praying for hours.” She winced. “I’ll need to do some exercise after this.”

“Agreed. We can’t have your health fail before you can tell me anything interesting.”

“Hilarious.”

“I am perfectly serious.”

“I’ll tell you something interesting. Starrick is getting a tea shipment from India soon, again. He gets them a lot. Apparently, there’s something else in this shipment.”

“Happen to hear what it was?”

“I did. Have you heard of the opium wars?”

“Obviously. Happened a decade ago, didn’t they?”

“During the second war, which indeed happened about a decade ago, some British troops were rerouted to India to stop the mutiny.”

“What does this have to do with Starrick?”

“A small group of these troops started an opium den in India. Starrick got a hold of it, somehow, and is now bringing the opium here – in order to make more of that horrid Soothing Syrup.”

Motherlode. “The name of the ship they’re to be transported in?”

She told him. “I must go now. My chaperone must wonder how devout I am being.”

“As do I. Thank you for the information.”

She took hold of his bench to get up and dropped a piece of paper on it before leaving. After the sound of her feet was gone, Jacob picked it up and read the next location.

_Sunday, Victoria Park alcoves. 11:00. DO NOT BE LATE._

“As you will, dear Anne.”


End file.
